Captain Ricardo Braz Freitas

Ricardo Braz was born in 1966. He joined the Navy in 1985 and was commissioned as an officer in 1991, after an internship aboard a Corvette.

He specialised in Navigation and has completed, amongst others, the General Naval Warfare Course, Principal Warfare Course, the European Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy Orientation Course and the British Sea Fishery Enforcement Course in the United Kingdom.

He has served aboard several naval units and was commanding officer the Fast Patrol Vessel Hidra (1992–1994), the Corvette João Roby (2007–2009), and the ASW Frigate Vasco da Gama (2011–2014).

During his sea-going career, he participated in multiple real-world missions and operations, including NATO’s Standing Naval Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) under Operation Active Endeavour, the African Partnership Station initiative, and the non-combatant evacuation of civilians from Guinea-Bissau.

On land, he has served in several key positions, including the Fleet Command, the Ships Directorate, the Integrated Naval Training and Evaluation Centre, and the Portuguese General Staff.

In 2014, he began a three-year assignment at the Portuguese Military Representation to NATO and the European Union in Brussels, where he served as Assistant to the Military Representative (MILREP) for EU.

He has also held roles as Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Training and Education Directorate, as well as Technical Director for Project 1 under the Defence Cooperation initiative in Guinea-Bissau.

Within the Naval Staff, he served as Head of the Operations Division Unit and later of the Networks and Information Systems Division.

Since August 2023 he has been serving as the Underwater and Seabed Warfare Project Officer in the Maritime Domain Unit at the European Defence Agency (EDA), in Brussels.

Ricardo Braz is married and has 3 children.